


kiss me on this cold december night

by HeartonFire



Category: Daredevil (TV), The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Fight Sex, First Kiss, First Time, Fluff, Power Outage, Smut, Snow, Snowed In, they fight and then they fuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-09-23 05:42:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17074454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeartonFire/pseuds/HeartonFire
Summary: The power goes out in the city, and Frank wants to be sure Karen is okay. His check-in doesn't go exactly as planned.





	kiss me on this cold december night

**Author's Note:**

> This started as a maybe Kastle Christmas gift, but it turned into something else entirely, so enjoy! I'll be posting my actual Christmas gift next week. :)

It was eerie. A city like New York. The city that never sleeps. A city of millions. And there was no power. Every light in sight was out. The snow was falling, and there wasn’t a light to be seen.

The shadows didn’t scare her. Not really. She had been living in them long enough. But this was different. This was dark like she hadn’t had since Vermont. This was dark she couldn’t face alone.

Karen had just lit a few candles when she heard a clatter on the fire escape and her heart jumped into her throat. She couldn’t be sure which vigilante it was until she saw the hulking shadow through the shades. She couldn’t get the window open fast enough. Snowflakes fluttered through the open window with a soft breeze.

“Frank?” She couldn’t believe it was really him. “What are you doing here?”

“Had to make sure you were okay.” He shrugged, looking down. “With the snow and all.” Speaking of which, it was collecting on his hood. His eyelashes. His shoulders. Karen couldn’t stop looking at him.

“You want to come in?”

“Yeah, uh, okay.” He cleared his throat. “I’ll come in for a minute.”

Karen stood back and let him climb through the window. He landed softly, like a cat. He had always been more graceful than anyone gave him credit for. He closed the window and stood watching her, eyes glinting in the darkness. He was so close he could touch her if he wanted.

But he didn’t touch her. He kept his distance. Respectful. Polite. He always did. She almost wished he wouldn’t. The silence spread between them, thick and heavy.

“Wine? Beer?” she asked, trying to remember how to host someone in her apartment. She hadn’t done it in a while. She might have been embarrassed, to have someone over when she was already in her pajamas, but not with Frank. And besides, it was almost too dark to see her anyway.

“Whatever you’re having.”

She led him out to the living room and he took a seat on the couch. She pulled the cork out of a bottle of wine with a soft pop and poured healthy glasses for herself and Frank. Why had she invited him in? He didn’t want this. She wasn’t ready for this. He just wanted to make sure she was safe. She didn’t have to make it whole thing.

She took a long drink of wine and brought him his glass. It looked funny, the delicate stem of the glass in his big hands. It looked right, seeing him sitting there on her couch.

It was cold there, in Karen’s apartment. The candles threw the angles of Frank’s face into sharp relief. How had she never noticed how handsome he was?

That wasn’t exactly true. She had noticed. But this was different. He was softer here. Warmer. She couldn’t look away. She wanted to memorize every line. Every scar. Every thing that made Frank, Frank.

“Good wine,” he said, staring down at the liquid in his glass like it might change if he took his eyes off it.

Karen shifted. Her leg was against his. The line of their thighs was fiery hot against the chill of the room. Karen pulled a blanket down off the back of the couch and threw it over them. She had to balance the two extremes somehow. She was always trying to do that. The blanket was lumpy and old, but it was the last thing she had of her mother’s. Frank tensed a little beside her before settling under the throw.

“Can I ask you something?” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. There was so much she didn’t know about Frank. So much she wanted to know.

He shrugged. She took that as a yes. She didn’t know what she wanted to ask first.

“How are you?”

Frank blinked at her. “How am I?” He stopped short of rolling his eyes, but only just. She knew it sounded stupid, but it was almost Christmas, and she needed to know. Now that she had said it, she needed to know the answer. She needed to know he was okay.

“Yeah, Frank. How are you?”

“How do you think?”

Karen sighed. He could never make things easy, could he? “That’s why I asked, Frank.”

His fingers twitched on the glass and he took a long swallow, before setting it down beside the candles. “I’m fine, Karen.”

“Really?”

He huffed out a breath, rolling back his shoulders. She could feel his agitation. “You think I’d lie to you?”

“Of course not. That wasn’t what I meant.”

“Then what did you mean?” His voice was a growl now. Low. Dangerous. He didn’t scare Karen. He never did. Not really.

“How are you getting by, these days?”

“You mean, am I going out at night? _Punishing_?” He lingered on the word, like it tasted wrong in his mouth. He had never called himself the Punisher before. She didn’t like it.

“No, Frank.” He wasn’t understanding her. She drained her wine and let the liquid warm her from the inside. She pulled the blanket up around them, shivering in the cold air. “No. I just want to know about your life. What are you doing when I don’t see you?”

He shrugged, deflating a little. “Work construction, mostly. Go to Curt’s group sometimes. See the Liebermans. Keep an eye on things.”

She wondered what he saw, when he was keeping an eye on things. She didn’t ask. She had already pushed too far. She could see that in the way he rolled his shoulders back. “Good. That’s good.”

“What are you getting up to when I don’t see you?” There was a bite in his voice now, as he turned her question around on her.

“Not much.” He raised an eyebrow. Karen sighed. “I don’t know, Frank. I mostly go to work, work for a while, come home, sleep. Rinse and repeat.”

“Not what I hear.” The edge in his voice was rough as gravel. Of course he’d have heard what had happened. He was keeping an eye on things, after all. “What were you thinking, Karen?”

Her eyes narrowed and she turned to face him. “What do you think you know about it?” she hissed, rage she had been fighting for weeks bubbling up inside her.

Frank’s nose scrunched and his eyes met hers. “I know what happened. I heard.”

“What, did Micro follow me with his cameras or something?”

Frank stood then, throwing off the blanket to pace the room. He was agitated. Angry.

“I asked him to look out for you while I was away. He did. He showed me what happened. So, I’ll ask you again: what were you thinking?”

“I had to do something.”

“Not put yourself in danger. Not like that.”

“I won’t apologize for it, Frank.” She stood, too, striding over to stand in front of him. “I’m not sorry I tried to go after him.”

“What if you had been killed?” He looked at her from under those heavy brows, eyes flashing. “Do you know…what I would’ve…you can’t…”

He was stumbling over his words, hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. He wanted to hurt someone. Not her. Never her. But his fury was boiling over now.

“Is that why you came here tonight? To scold me for what happened? Yell at me for something I wouldn’t go back and change, even if I could?” Let him be angry. She was angry too.

“You think you can just do that? Put yourself in danger like that?” He stepped closer to her. He loomed over her, even though they were the same height.

Karen straightened, tossing her hair back. She was ready to dig in. Claw her way back to the surface. She could fight just as well as he could. “I can do whatever I want. I haven’t seen you in months. I didn’t even know if you were still in the city. If you were still alive. How dare you come into my house and…”

Whatever she was going to say was cut off by Frank’s lips on hers.

Karen hadn’t let herself think about what her first kiss with Frank might be like. She had never thought it would happen. After the kiss he had left on her cheek, she’d thought that was it. After the elevator, he was gone. She hadn’t seen him since then. And now, here he was.

Here he was, pulling her to him with a ferocity that startled her, though it shouldn’t have. She always knew he had violence in him. It had always been there. She just never imagined it could light her up this way. His lips, his teeth, his tongue, his hands. He was rough, handling her. He was hard, all muscle under his clothes. He was holding her against his chest and she could feel his heart pounding against hers.

His hands came up to cup her face and he pulled away just a touch. Just enough to rest his forehead against hers. He was breathing hard. So was she.

“Hey,” he said, a shadow of a smile on his angular face.

Karen tried to scowl, but she couldn’t quite manage it. “Hey.” She couldn’t keep looking into those impossibly deep eyes. She was lost. She couldn’t even remember what she had been so angry about. The thought made her angry all over again. “Wait a minute. You can’t just kiss me to shut me up.”

He grinned. A full, face-cracking grin. She had never seen him smile like that. It changed him. Made him look younger. Almost carefree. Like they could just be here. Together. Like this.

“Worth a shot.”

Karen wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in for another kiss. She was almost afraid he’d change his mind. She had to convince him not to.

He didn’t seem inclined to go anywhere. His fingers tangled in her hair, pulling at the strands with a bite of pain. Karen didn’t mind. If anything, she pressed closer, molding her body to his. She wanted to feel him. All of him.

“Come with me,” she mumbled between kisses. Frank’s head tilted and Karen almost told him to forget it. But he nodded and let her lead him to the bedroom, and it was too late. She was gone. So was he.

It was even colder in her bedroom, and it was almost pitch black but Karen hardly noticed, as they tumbled into bed. Frank’s arms were locked around her again, and he was still kissing her. She could stay, just like this, if that’s all he wanted. If he’d stay and keep kissing her, his tongue pressing past her lips to claim her, she’d stay too. They could hide here, in her bed, and just be together. Maybe that was enough.

But it wasn’t. Not for her, and not for him. His hands roamed over her body, tracing her ribcage and making her giggle into his mouth when he hit a ticklish spot. He smiled against her neck and pressed open-mouthed kisses to her skin, making her arch against him. He grazed his teeth against her collarbone and Karen’s legs found their way around his. She felt out of control. Wild. It was exhilarating.

Frank groaned as she circled her hips against him. The pressure wasn’t enough. She needed more. She pulled her shirt over her head and Frank grazed his palms over her breasts, callused and rough, just on this side of too hard when he pinched her nipple between his fingers. Karen arched into him again with a hiss of pleasure and pain. Frank grinned, nipping at the underside of her breasts before kissing along her ribcage.

His hands found their way to the waistband of her pajamas and pushed them down, exposing her skin to the chilly air. She trembled under his touch as his fingertips trailed down her hipbones to her thighs, feather-light as he pressed them apart. Karen could already feel how wet she was. She didn’t need much and she’d be tumbling over the edge. All her muscles tensed as he toyed with her, and he grinned again.

“Relax,” he murmured, breath brushing over her like a whisper. Her head fell back to the pillow as her hips canted up to search for friction. He didn’t give her any, focusing his attentions instead on her knees, her thighs, her belly button.

When he finally pressed a single finger to her clit, she shattered. A low moan poured out of her mouth, dirty and slow. When she was able to open her eyes, Frank had removed his clothes and returned to her, staring straight through her. He had always been able to see past her defenses. She had never felt so vulnerable. She had never felt so safe.

“You sure about this?” There was a flicker of what might have been fear in his eyes. Karen reached for him and pulled him against her, the feel of his skin against hers almost too much. She was overstimulated, overwhelmed by the sensation of touching him, but she couldn’t stop. She didn’t want to.

“Please, Frank,” she whispered. “I want to feel you.”

He growled against her ear and she shivered. She reached down to guide him inside and sighed as he stretched her around him. It felt right, having him here. Having him inside her. She had always known it would. She had never let herself hope for it.

She kissed him again, slow and soft. He started to move and Karen knew it wouldn’t be long before she broke again. Before he put her back together.

He was mumbling against her ear, filthy things he wanted to do her that made Karen’s toes curl. She could do this forever, if he let her. If he wanted to. She wanted to do every single thing he said. He had her now. She needed to know how far they could push this until it collapsed under the weight of everything standing against them.

She shook the thought from her head and clutched at Frank’s back hard enough to leave marks as he found a new angle that hit her in just the right place. She wrapped her legs around him and pulled him in as deep as she could. His hips snapped into hers, over and over again, and she let him take what he needed. She needed it too.

They crashed into another climax together, sweaty and sated as they came down from the high. Karen shivered when Frank rolled off her, and slid under the covers while he cleaned himself up. She fought hard to stay awake until he came back, but the other side of the bed was still cold by the time sleep took her.

When she woke to the first rays of the sunrise in the morning, she was half-afraid it had all been a dream, half-afraid it wasn’t. She had no idea how this was going to work. Maybe it was better if she had just imagined it. If the hot sex she had had with Frank was all in her head. Just a dream.

But then she felt him shifting beside her, and she knew. This was better. This was everything.

“I should fight with you more often,” she whispered against his chest, turning to bury her face into his side.

A laugh rumbled out of him at that and he held her closer. “Maybe you should.” He rolled her over so she was on top of him and she felt him, hard beneath her. The snow was piling up on the windowsill and the lights were still out. They had all day.

**Author's Note:**

> I had this idea about Karen and Frank finally kissing while in the middle of an argument, and it kind of got away from me.
> 
> As always, kudos and comments are always appreciated! You guys are the best. <3


End file.
